Cuba and the Latin American Left

Abstract

This chapter begins with Fidel Castro’s reflections about the requirements of a successful guerrilla campaign. Then it examines the decade of ‘revolutionary fervor’ in the 1960s: Cuba’s ‘calling’ as a revolutionary country and hence its extensive support to Latin American and Caribbean insurgent movements. Additionally I briefly analyze the Cuban support structures for exporting or influencing revolutions, the Departamento América. In the 1970s and 1980s when Cuba became economically and militarily dependent on the Soviet Union, its backing of revolutions never faded: it sent large expeditionary armies to Africa and tried to create national umbrella structures for the Latin American guerrilla, succeeding in this sense specifically in Central America. After the Cold War, Cuba’s economy became a Spartan survival one and its military muscle considerably diminished. Then it used soft power diplomacy (medical missions and literacy campaigns in three continents) and found a new financial supporter in Venezuela’s President Chávez. Cuba also acted as a peace moderator in the case of Central America and Colombia.